Merck & Co. Stock Slipping, Jefferies Lowers Price Target

EXCLUSIVE Free Report:

Trading Tools and Tips Every Investor Must Have

From Trading Tip #1: Learn How to Identify support and resistance levels, to Trading Tip #10: See how narrow range candles lead to explosive moves - discover the critical trading tools StockMarketVideo.com uses to be a more successful, much richer investor.

Just as Jefferies diminished its price target on the stock to 53$ from 54$ and gave a “hold” rating, shares of Merck & Co. (MRK) started slithering by 0.44% to $56.00 on Wednesday morning.

“We are becoming incrementally concerned on risk/reward and fundamentals for MRK,” Jefferies analysts explained in an investor note this morning.

This is driven by manifold firmness that can be witnessed in several contexts, such as upsurges in net income, widely solid financial position with sensible debt levels by most measures, plausible valuation levels, expanding profit margins and rise in earnings per share.

Moreover, there were advancement in the net income growth from the same quarter one year ago, exceeding that of the S&P 500 and the Pharmaceuticals industry.The net income heightened by 18.0% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $953.00 million to $1,125.00 million.

The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.59, is low and is below the industry average, signifying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Along with the agreeable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.13, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems.

The gross profit margin for Merck & Co has been increased from the same quarter the previous year, coming in at 81.62%. Disregarding of the solid results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 12.08% trails the industry average. MERCK & CO has improved earnings per share by 21.2% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago.

The company has traded down 0.30% during trading on Tuesday, reaching $55.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,326,951 shares. Merck & Co. has a 52 week low of $45.69 and a 52 week high of $60.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $154.84 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.30. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $55.55 and a 200 day moving average of $53.23.

Merck & Co. last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 5th. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $9.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.85 EPS. Merck & Co.’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Merck & Co. will post $3.72 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 13th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.28%.